Dear Brothers and Sisters,
May the Lord give you peace.
Today is a special day, because we are opening the Academic Year on the liturgical feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, in the City where the Lord Jesus Christ was historically exalted on the Cross, giving his life for our redemption.
What is the link between the opening of the academic year and the exaltation of the Holy Cross?
I think it is the topic of wisdom.
Why do we study theology or every other science? Because we are looking for wisdom and truth. And we know that looking for wisdom and truth is looking for the deep meaning of our life, of the world in which we are living, and of the history that flows from her alpha toward her omega point.
And when we are looking at the Holy Cross we are looking at the only source of wisdom! A wisdom that is truth and love and power at the same time, as the apostle St. Paul writes in his letters. Even to the eyes of the world it is foolishness and weakness.
In the Holy Cross the wisdom of love shines in a sublime way.
As pope Francis said to young people on Palm Sunday three years ago: “Dear young people! Yet all of us, all of you know very well that the King whom we follow and who accompanies us is very special: he is a King who loves even to the Cross and who teaches us to serve and to love. And you are not ashamed of his Cross! On the contrary, you embrace it, because you have understood that it is in giving ourselves, in giving ourselves, in emerging from ourselves that we have true joy and that, with his love, God has conquered evil… You carry it [the Cross] so as to tell everyone that on the Cross Jesus knocked down the wall of enmity that divides people and nations, and he brought reconciliation and peace”.
So at the beginning of your academic year I wish that each of you can reach this kind of wisdom: the wisdom of the Cross, the wisdom of true love, the wisdom that makes you feel loved by God who gave his only Son for everyone of you, for everyone of us. I wish that this wisdom will guide you in the present and in the future, when you will be called to be pastors and educators: without the wisdom of the Cross, without the wisdom of love and giving themselves it is impossible to carry on a pastoral care ministry and an educational service.
So may the wisdom of Cross guide you and us during this year, and during all our live.
May it be so.
Fr. Francesco Patton OFM
Custos Terrae Sanctae